JAMIE BORTHWICK
Campaigners opposed to an extensive redevelopment in Edinburgh's historic Old Town last night remained firmly against the proposals, despite a compromise coming from the developer.
Mountgrange Ltd, the company behind the £300m Caltongate scheme, has withdrawn an application which would have seen the full demolition of the listed MacRae tenements in the World Heritage Site at the Canongate.
The development, recently described by leading Edinburgh architect James Simpson as "profoundly mistaken", will now retain the facade and upper levels of the building, with a series of arches linking it to the rest of the site. However, Save Our Old Town campaigner and Canongate resident Sally Richardson feels the announcement changes little.
She said: "This is slightly better in the developer's eyes but the reality is that the guts of the building will go, while a five-star hotel retains the facade of a 1930s workers' housing development."
The developer's 12 remaining planning applications will now be scrutinised at a meeting on February 6.
Ms Richardson added: "If this was to go ahead you could economically argue for knocking down the castle."
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